


The Jump

by aine_clover



Series: What if? GWTW [5]
Category: Gone With the Wind - All Media Types, Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Genre: Angst and Feels, Angst and Tragedy, F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22957684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aine_clover/pseuds/aine_clover
Summary: What if the pony had landed without incident?
Relationships: Bonnie Butler & Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler/Scarlett O'Hara
Series: What if? GWTW [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624156
Comments: 12
Kudos: 89





	The Jump

If he had ruined her, it was only in that moment on the porch that he realised it was true.

His sickly wife spoke beside him as his eyes traced his beautiful girl galloping across the lawn with reckless abandonment. 

“Bonnie, you've only just learnt side-saddle!” He called. 

His voice met nothing as he called playfully for his darling girl to stop. 

But she didn’t.

Instead, the cantering hooves of hit the soft grass, Bonnie oblivious to the rising panic in her parents. 

“Rhett… stop her…” Scarlett said breathlessly as she launched to her feet, her fingers clinging to his arm. 

“Bonnie!” Rhett called, the smallest twitch of anxiety hitting his relaxed face. He tried to keep his expression loving and kind as his darling princess ignored him entirely. A stubbornness arose in her, and he wasn’t sure where it came from, him, Scarlett, or a monstrous concoction of the two. 

He felt his stomach clench as the pony approached the jump, holding his breath as its hooves thundered forward. Scarlett’s fingers were digging painfully to his arm with such strength he was sure it would leave a bruise, as the pair watched helplessly from the porch. 

It all happened slowly as his darling girl launched upon the fat pony. Its hooves reached out and he heard Scarlett let out a choked gasp beside him. 

Rhett sighed out in relief as the pony’s hooves hit the soft grass with a thud. Bonnie was giggling and laughing, her hands expertly tight on the reins as she trotted easily across the perfectly manicured yard. 

He felt her before he saw her. A hard shove in his ribs which removed him from the path as his still sickly wife ran across that perfect lawn at a speed he had never seen. 

His wife was usually static and preened, like the parrots with their clipped wings behind him. 

But she ran down the grass with a streak of blue chiffon streaming behind her, her feet moving so quickly they were practically soundless against the green. Her shawl fluttered in the air behind her as she ran free of it, her heels gouging against the grass below. 

He heard Bonnie shriek as Scarlett ripped her from the pony and shook the girl with a ferocity which made him ill. He saw Bonnie’s head bobble from side to side as Scarlett screeched at her, sunk to her knees so she was eye to eye with his little princess. 

He sprinted towards them, feeling his heart thud in his chest. Scarlett’s voice was so panicked and harsh that he couldn’t hear the words as he rushed towards the scene. He pulled Scarlett to her feet, trying to save the now terrified Bonnie but his wife pushed him hard in the stomach, causing him to stumble away as she returned her ferocious attention to their little girl. 

“Don’t you EVER ignore your father like that! Not ever again!” Scarlett was roaring, sounding hysterical as she continued to shake Bonnie, her fingers cutting into the weeping girl's arms. “Not ever! Don’t ever be so STUPID!”

Rhett tried to step in and attempted to pry Bonnie free, but he halted when he saw Scarlett crush the little girl to her chest. Scarlett’s arms were wrapped tightly to her, her lips trembling as she buried her face to Bonnie, a small sob pressing past her closed mouth. Bonnie’s arms wrapped Scarlett’s neck as she wept, and her mother held her close. 

“You’re mighty precious,” Scarlett said quietly as she pulled away, prying Bonnie to stand eye to eye with her once more. Rhett noted the tears rushing down Scarlett’s face. “You have to listen to us. You have to.” 

“I will Mama,” Bonnie wailed, looking devastated and disheveled. 

“I love you,” Scarlett whispered, burying her face to the little girl's hair. “Mama loves you, I love you precious.” 

Rhett watched dumbfounded as Scarlett lifted the little girl, hushing her as she walked her back to the house. Rhett tried to take her from Scarlett, but Scarlett sharply moved her shoulders to obstruct him.

“Don’t,” she hissed, eyes hateful as she continued towards the house.

“You’re not well enough,” Rhett attempted to interrupt but Scarlett ignored him as she slowly stepped back into the house, Bonnie clinging to her. 

Rhett had stood silent on the lawn for a long moment before he was brave enough to follow his weak wife back into the house. It had taken him several more hours to build the courage to view his ferocious wife once more. He wasn’t proud of the fact that Scarlett had the capacity to frighten him. She stood at five foot nothing of slim pettiness, but sometimes she caught a fury in her green eyes that petrified him. Only ever fleetingly, but enough to make him steer clear till he was sure she had calmed down. He had peered in hours later to see Scarlett asleep with Bonnie pressed to her, the two curled up in Scarlett’s expansive bedroom. The little girl clung to her mother even in her rest and it warmed him and irked him all at once. Though he died before he’d admit it, Scarlett was painfully correct when earlier in the day she had accused him of ‘stealing’ Bonnie from her. It had never been intentional, but over the child's short life he had surely turned her into an enemy of his wife, and he had assured himself that Bonnie Butler belonged only to him. The way her curly-haired head pressed to Scarlett now demonstrated that had all been in vain. His princess loved her Scarlett in the same way he did, with an unexplainable pull and force that had no explanation or fact. Bonnie’s heavy body pressed and sunk into Scarlett and he winced at the idea of his wife’s brittle bones being weighed down by their four-year-old daughter’s frame. He was no doctor but he was sure it wasn’t a good idea. Rhett moved slowly across the plush carpets of the foreign room and leaned over, his huge hands softly lifting Bonnie. 

Bonnie did not awake, but Scarlett did.

Her arms wrapped tightly around the little girl and she eyes snapped up, looking frantically at Rhett through the grogginess. 

“Rhett. Stop,” she whispered, eyes frantic.

“Scarlett-”

“Don’t take her-”

“Scarlett she can’t lie on your ribs…” Rhett said softly. “Pet they’re broken…”

Scarlett tried to continue but he interrupted her as he carefully readjusted Bonnie to lay beside Scarlett. Scarlett nodded weakly and moved her body to Bonnie’s, holding the little girl against her once more.

“She’s ok,” Rhetts said, sharply confused and unsettled by Scarlett’s behaviour. He watched the minute shake of his wife’s head occur as she curled close to Bonnie. 

He had taken to his own room and drunk more than a few fingers of scotch to try and shake the feeling running through him. He felt left out of the moment, as though he had missed a simple note in an orchestra and the whole thing had suddenly become a wall of sound, and he was no longer listening to the melody had conducted with perfection for the last four years. Instead, it was a strange string tune that he didn’t know the tones of. His wife, crying and clinging to their daughter, was not something he ever expected to view in his lifetime. A strange wash of anxiety had affected him till he had numbed it with liquor, loosening his cravat and slumping in a plush armchair by the fireplace. 

It had been a gentle knock that rose him from his stupor. He had lazily opened the door, expecting the timid gesture to be that of Ella’s or Wade’s. 

Instead, there stood Scarlett. Her finery was disheveled, her eyes lowered as she stood looking a foot smaller than her already diminutive frame in his doorway.

“Scarlett,” he said, trying to make his voice clear and calm. 

“I need to speak to you,” she said, quiet and eyes remaining downcast.

He sarcastically swung his arm for her to enter and she did slowly, standing to the side as he swiftly closed the door, leaving it slightly ajar. He knew better than to try and trap her. Like cornering a wild animal, it wouldn’t end well for him. He could do without her putting her claws into his cheek. 

“We need to talk about that pony Rhett,” she said. Her voice was tight and controlled but he knew better than to think she was timid or tearful. This was how Scarlett was when she was truly angry and he felt a tug of terror, which deeply ashamed him, that his tiny wife was so ferocious and had such power over him. 

“Scarlett,” he soothed, smiling softly at her. He could do his best to assuage her, but he knew that it was like trying to turn the tide. He imagined taking a bucket of water to the burning of Atlanta and felt a tug of a smile at the absurdity that his marriage had become. 

“This pony…” she begun, trailing off as her fists clenched by her side. 

“Yes?” Rhett asked cavalierly as he began to pour her a drink. 

“You need to take a bullet to it.”

He was stunned at her solution, her characteristic cruelness somehow still able to shock him. He froze, the amber liquid still in the bottle as he placed it down and turned back to her, eyebrows furrowed and face astonished. 

“Scarlett,” he said, his tone firm. “That is ridiculous.”

“What is ridiculous,” Scarlett replied coldly, her eyes flickering up and full of hate. “Is that our four-year-old daughter doesn’t listen to you-”

“She was excited-” Rhett tried to correct. 

“That she is so spoilt, so ruined that-”

“Scarlett-” Rhett said, feeling his temper rising to meet hers.

“She could have died!” Scarlett shouted. Rhett spun and shut the door with a tight snap, turning to tower her. 

“But she didn’t!” He hissed. “Scarlett stop, you’re going to wake her up!” 

“That pony would be the death of her!” Scarlett snarled, her voice still ringing. 

“Shush Scarlett,” he said, glaring down at her. “You’re always the most dramatic-”

“And you don’t even care!” She shouted. 

It silenced him. He felt the wrath swell him as he stepped forward with such ferocity that it caused her to stumble back to the corner of the room. She looked up at him, her back pressed to the wallpaper. 

“I care,” he said, he said quietly and vengefully. His dark eyes sparkled with viciousness. “I care about her, more than you ever well.”

She said nothing, she simply glared up as her jaw clenched. 

“Don’t you dare try to play parent to me, Scarlett O’Hara,” he said quietly, leaning down to further intimidate her. He felt the pure power of his long and lean and strong body against her weak and diminutive frame. He let out a cold mirthless laugh. “You can lie to yourself, but don’t think you can lie to me.” 

She stared at him. 

“You don’t even want your children,” he said, delivering the blow with such cruelness he saw her flinch.

They stood in the swamp of hatred for one another, their anger radiating into one another as he saw her still unwell ribs heave up and down to accommodate her breathing.

“You’re going to put a bullet in that pony,” Scarlett said, gaze wavering as she watched him. He could see the terror in her, the way her shoulders punched and curved, the way her nails dug into her palms. He let out a harsh laugh at her persistence. 

“Scarlett-”

“I’ll do it-”

“Enough!” He roared. She was silent as her head dropped and he felt the swell of victory rush across him, burning deep beneath his skin.

He almost laughed, almost spat a bark of laughter to see her look so weak and tired and pathetic. How dare she attempt to play mother to him. There were cats that were better mother’s then the endlessly selfish and self-absorbed Scarlett and he wouldn’t entertain this new role she attempted to parade into his chambers.

He turned away from her and stepped to continue to pour his drink. 

“I won’t let you kill another one of my babies.”

Her voice was so soft that he barely caught it, but the waft of her words hit him with such brutality it felt as if she had hit him. There was a stunned silence as he turned back, stood a foot from her as he blinked in shock at what she had said. She slowly turned her face to his. He saw tears stream down her face but he feature was held still. He waited for the lips to tremble but they didn’t. Instead, a firmness hit her expression, and her tears looked alien against her cheeks. Two wet streaks that seemed out of place against the resolution they lay upon. An image of the weeping Mary leapt to his mind but he pushed it away, attempting to keep any traces that she had bothered him away from his features. 

“I wanted it,” she said, her voice thick with grief and rage and a million other unspilled emotions. “I lied. I won’t let you kill another one of my babies.”

“Scarlett,” Rhett began but she shook her head. 

“You say I can’t lie to you,” she said, her voice soft and stiff. “Well, I did. I lied when I said I wished it was anyone else. I lied when I said I didn’t want it. I lied when I said I didn’t care you were leaving.”

He blinked in shock.

“You say you love me,” she whispered. “You don’t. You just want to hurt me and think the worst of me.”

“Scarlett-”

“And you can hurt me all you want,” she said, the slightest crack appearing in her voice. “But I can’t let you hurt Bonnie. I can’t allow that.”

He said nothing as she sniffled, raising her sleeve to dab at her face. 

“I hate you,” she whispered. “Because you hate me.”

She pulled herself together in front of him, restitching herself like a wound mending across torn skin. He saw the way her shoulders rose, the way her breathing slowed and the tremble left her. She looked up as though speaking to an old acquaintance, distant and cool. 

“I’d like to return to her Rhett,” she said composedly. 

She attempted to walk around him, but he blocked the path. He saw her flinch and a burn of shame ran through him. 

“You lied?” He whispered, his voice hoarse. She nodded, her teeth set.

“Rhett,” she said quietly. “I need to get back to Bonnie.”

“You wanted my baby?”

She gulped, eyes downcast as she squared her shoulders, tired and unwilling but prepared to have yet another enormous quarrel with him.

“I’m still so sick Rhett,” she whispered, her voice hateful. “I don’t want to fight with you-”

“I’m so sorry.” 

She froze, looking up slowly to see Rhett devastated in front of her. Tears swam in his gaze as he stared at her, shoulders slack and expression crushed with grief. 

“Rhett?” She asked quietly, unsure of what to make of the man who stood in front of her. 

He sunk to his knees as his arms wrapped around her, his ear pressed to her empty stomach. 

“I did this,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry… oh, Scarlett….”

She felt the tears soak through the fabric of her dress as she stood, horrified, her hands thrown up in shock as she tried to consider what to do next. He looked up slowly, his face devastated as she stared down in astonishment at his tearstained expression. 

“I wanted to hurt you,” he confessed. “Because I was angry and jealous and….” 

The sob interrupted him as he buried his face to her once more.

“Oh God Scarlett,” he murmured. “You’ll never forgive me because I won’t ever forgive myself.”

There was a long moment in the darkened room in which Scarlett’s hands fluttered near her head, unable to lower hands as his sobbing shook through her whole body. It was with timid bravery she finally let her fingers lay rest to him, one hand coming to bury into his hair and the other touch his shoulder. 

It did nothing to calm him, he only cried harder as she held him close against her body. She recalled this was the way that Wade would weep against her when he was particularly missing Rhett and she let out a breath of laughter that she was grateful that Rhett didn’t hear. 

He finally looked up at her once the fabric on her belly was soaked through with his tears. She had sunk to him as his arms slacked, so she knelt in front of him, his body once again above her. He looked down at her to see her watching him suspiciously, eyes fluttering over him and he let out a small laugh. 

“Oh Scarlett,” he murmured with a sad smile. “Of course, you think my tears are those of mock and harm.”

She nodded almost imperceptibly.

“You did want it?” She asked uncertainly, and he nodded softly.

“Of course,” he said, eyes firm despite his grief.

She nodded once more, her hand weakly reaching out to hold his.

“I called for you and you never came,” she said as she sunk to the floor. He mirrored her, his knees touching hers till they sat against the carpet. 

“You did?” He asked. She nodded weakly, feeling a stab of self-hatred that she had not called louder. This could have all been avoided if she had called earlier, if she had been honest when he came back, if she had shown him on the stairs that she did want the baby.

The baby.

Fresh grief-filled tears rushed down her face as she dropped her head once more. She could have stopped all of this if she had just been brave, but instead, she had been cowardly and cold and it had cost her her child’s life. 

“I thought you hated me,” she whispered, eyes downcast. 

“I wish I could Scarlett,” he confessed quietly. “But I can’t. I think I am cursed to only be able to love you, as long as I live.”

She nodded weakly once more. 

“As are you,” he said with a small laugh. “What two terrible people we are to be with one another, but here we are.”

It wasn’t romantic or even kind, but it was true and that was more than what could be said for what Rhett Butler had confessed to her across her life. 

“Do you really want to start over?” She asked. He nodded, cupping her face as she glanced up. She looked almost glassy-eyed, her cheeks still damp from the torrent of tears.

“If you’ll have me, Scarlett,” he murmured. She nodded and leant up to kiss him softly, just once before leaning away and curling to him. 

He had held her on the floor, rocking her softly till she had fallen asleep in his grip

He vowed to her against the crushing silence and against the rich red carpet of the Peachtree Street Mansion, that he would never let her lie to him as long as they lived.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for the prompt Speechie22 & ninigi :)


End file.
